In a spool Axminster weaving loom each weft-wise row of pile is produced by weaving into the carpet the free ends of a row of carpet pile yarns which are carried wound on a spool. Once the row of carpet pile has been secured in place by a weft, the yarns are severed to leave the pile woven into the carpet and release the spool which can then be replaced by a new spool which will have coloured pile yarns in a different order along it when weaving a patterned carpet.
The cutting of pile yarns can be achieved by a pair of cutting blades which extends generally weft-wise and are brought together in the fashion of the cutting edges of a pair of scissors so as to give a shearing action. From time to time these cutting blades need resharpening or replacement through wear and damage and this entails stopping the loom and removing the blades for grinding and the like. The resharpening operation is itself highly skilled and the subsequent reassembly of the blades on the loom is a long and skilled operation because of the accuracy required for good loom operation. In addition to the skill required, the lost operating time for the loom represents a very significant loss of production from an expensive piece of machinery. Further, the blades have a high replacement cost. While these disadvantages are highly significant for fairly narrow looms they markedly increase for broadlooms.
Also problems arise in the severing of the yarns in an Axminster gripper spool loom and an Axminster gripper loom before the severed yarns are woven into the carpet.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an Axminster carpet loom in which the cutting of the pile yarns is effected in a manner which simplifies the maintenance of the loom.